Questions 1-4 are about the following announcement.

 Reading Festival  

    On Friday, March 6, Sullivan School will have a Reading Festival. Grade 6, 7, and 8 students will all participate in special activities. 

*The special lunch will be held in the cafeteria.

*Activity leaders will travel from homeroom to homeroom.

*All activities will happen in students' regular homeroom classrooms. 

Questions 1-4 are about the following e-mail.

    Dear Anthony, 

    I watched the video you sent me last week. You look like a great soccer player and I would love to have you on my team. However, there are some questions I have for you. It is important that we know enough about you before you get here so that we can fmd the perfect place for you. First of all, how long have you been playing soccer? Second, what is your favorite position?

    Also, I am going to need a copy of your middle school grades. Academics are very important at Gremling Soccer Academy. We are only interested in athletes who are serious about school. We believe that if you work hard in school, then you will work hard on the soccer field too. I'd like you to know that we assist all of our players when applying to high school. We also know a lot of soccer coaches all over the country.

   Thanks again for sending me your video. I look forward to meeting you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your soccer season, and I will let you know when I get the rest of the information I need. 

   Sincerely,

   Coach McMahon 

Questions 1-6 are about the following article.

    Last week, one teacher from Newark Middle School, Miss Helen DeBow, was given a Teacher of the Year award. The awards are given out by the State Department of Education to excellent teachers. Teachers win because of their students who write in to the contest. The award was given to Ms. DeBow on Saturday, June 6, in Wilmington, Delaware.

    Ms. DeBow is a history teacher at Newark Middle School. She teaches history to seventh-graders and loves teaching about the history of the United States. "I like teaching American history best because it helps students understand their own lives." Ms. DeBow enjoys teaching other histories too. "Studying ancient history is also very interesting. I always have my students study Mesopotamia," she said.

    It was Carla Ross and Michael Hubbard who wrote to the department for Ms. Debow. "She's a wonderful teacher and I really wanted her to win this award," said Carla. Michael agreed and added, "Ms. DeBow is one of the best teachers at this school. I'm happy that they chose her." 

Questions 1-6 are about the following story.

    Rain pounded down on the roof. I was trying to read but the sound was too loud. I couldn't help myself from being a little grumpy. I wanted to be outside playing, but the rain was keeping me inside.

    My mom had gone to the grocery store, and my dad was spending Saturday at the office. I had planned to spend the day hiking, but Mother Nature decided that today was the perfect day for rain.

    It meant that I would have to entertain myself. I spent most of the morning playing with my stuffed animals and reading. I was sitting next to the window staring out when I got a strange idea: why not just go outside anyway?

    I put on my boots and a big raincoat and stepped out into the wet world. It was raining hard but it wasn't cold. All I could hear were raindrops and the wind. I decided to go on my hike anyway.

    My feet didn't make any sound on the wet ground and the forest seemed different. I went to my favorite place and sat down. In the summer, my best friend Ellen and I would come here and sit for hours. It was our special place. All of a sudden, I thought I heard someone shouting my name. I turned and saw Ellen walking up behind me.

    "Oh my Gosh! It's really you, Martha!" she said. "I can't believe that you are out here right now. I thought I would be the only person crazy enough to go for a walk in the rain."

    I was very happy to have some company. We decided that hiking in the rain was just as fun as hiking in the sunshine. We planned on biking in the rain again. 

    The stars are beautiful in the night sky. They are far away, farther away than most people can imagine. Even though they are light years away, they can still light up the sky. For thousands of years, people have been interested in stars. They have been used as fortunetellers, calendars, and maps. Travelers often used the stars to help them find their way.

    Before there was electricity, the stars and moon were the brightest things in the night sky. People spent hours staring up and wondering what the little, twinkling lights were. Back then, the stars were easier to see because there weren't any other lights at night.

    Not many ancient people realized that the sun was a star. The sun and moon were thought of as father and mother of Earth in some ancient cultures. The stars were thought of as lesser gods or the souls of people who had died.

    Greek philosophers 2,300 years ago started to try and unravel the mystery. A man named Anaxagoras thought that the sun was a giant ball of metal burning in the center of our universe. He was thrown in jail and sentenced to death because this idea conflicted with people's religious beliefs.

    Even so, people did not stop trying to understand the sun. Scientists still study it today. Large telescopes take pictures of the sun almost every day as we try and learn more about it. 

Questions 1-8 re about the following passage.

    Books and reading are a very important part of education. If you go into someone's house in the modem world, they will usually have some sort of bookshelf full of books that they like to read. Some very educated or book-loving people have large rooms full of books.

    Nowadays, you can have many books without needing a room to store them. The Internet is making it more efficient for people to read. Web sites now make it easy for people to buy books. Thousands of books are available online. You can buy used books or new books. Now you can even buy electronic books. The Kindle, released by the web site Amazon, allows people to download books online and read them on the device. People can download hundreds of books at a time and put them on this small, hand-held e-book reader.

    The personal libraries of the past still look good and many people still like to have paper books, but e-book readers like the Kindle are changing things fast. Now people can carry huge libraries with them anywhere. People can read books for a lot cheaper as well. Books bought electronically are inexpensive because they do not have to be printed. They are stored in files and sold straight to the device. The Kindle and other reading devices are going to change book-buying and reading forever.